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In this photo, Linda is picking Kippy up at the Winter Haven house where we spent our childhood. It’s still there, but not in the family anymore. Our grandmother Towa had it built in 1925 after she was widowed, and we came to live there when our father was overseas during World War II, and later when our parents divorced.

I’ve been reading through The Girl Who Talked Too Much, looking for errors that need to be corrected. Since it was done as Print On Demand, I didn’t have to have a print run of thousands made, and revisions can be made through Kindle Direct Publishing. I’d like to invite those of you who are reading it to help me with this, and to inform me if you find anything that you think is a typo or other error. And don’t forget to plan to come to Mitchell’s Coffee House on November 29 for some delicious coffee and yummies, and to visit my book-signing. It’s during the Downtown Lakeland Farmer’s Market on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I’ll be signing books at Mitchell’s on November 29, the last Saturday in the month, during the Lakeland Farmer’s Market downtown (NOT on November 22, as originally announced).

That’s Thanksgiving weekend, so while you’re replenishing all your veggies after the big feast, come to the market, and poke your head into Mitchell’s for some delicious coffee and yummies, and look over my books.

I think it’s actually a wonderful thing to be so busy at my age, and spending all of the last few days either out of town visiting old friends who asked me to bring some copies of my new book up so we could visit while I signed them…

… or staying at home after a few morning appointments, and spending hours doing chores that are time-consuming to accomplish but that. must be done. The one I did Monday is a monthly chore, and the one today only has to be done every four months. I’ll only say that they’re medical-related, one for him, one for me, and that it is greatly rewarding to have them done and their results available.

My morning appointments have been to a physical therapist, who is putting me through the wringer at my request, helping me to get more flexible and stronger. We’re working on talking the muscles into holding the bones where they are. Twice a week for the rest of the month. He is enjoying giving me homework, which is only fair, since I gave so much out during my career.

This morning I was remembering Kippy and her medals at Special Olympics. This picture is in the book, The Girl Who Talked Too Much, but it’s not in color.

I’ll be signing books at Mitchell’s Coffee House on Saturday, November 29, which is Thanksgiving weekend. You know you’re going to have to replenish your stores with luscious veggies after the big feast, so plan to come up for the Farmers’ Market that morning. I hope lots of you will be able to come. As well as The Girl Who Talked Too Much, which recently came out on Amazon, I’ll have American Governess and both of my poetry chapbooks with me . To buy the books, you can click on the titles, or just come and see me there

Shanghaied

A British 'press gang' bopped 
my great-forefather's head
in fifteen-something.
Saving that, he'd have been dead
with the members of his family
in the plagues of sixteen-three.

The Royal Navy's methods of recruitment 
may have changed,
but each time God's been 
a little rough with me,

I remember Great-Ancestor
was shanghaied against his will
and so survived;
and otherwise
there'd be no me.

I emailed my cousin in Bermuda this morning because I wondered what effects the island had suffered from the passing of the colossal Hurricane Melissa last night, and I haven’t heard back from him. Perhaps the power is out.

I wrote the poem above about ancestor of mine who, as a young man in London, was ‘impressed’ into the Royal Navy. At the end of a career as a sailor, he chose to retire to Bermuda in the mid-1600’s, since his family at home had been wiped out by the Black Plague. My grandmother, a direct descendant, was born there in 1877, and came to New York City to train as a nurse. Her story is in my new book.

Kippy, title character in my memoir, The Girl Who Talked Too Much, often wore an expression I thought of as ‘attentive curiosity’ with her eyebrows shot up into her bangs. Here, in an unusual silent moment, she was watching a Christmas program on TV. Just in case she had something to say, her right hand was ready to reflect the sound back to her ears by covering her mouth.

If she was answering a question, she didn’t usually do it, but when talking aloud to herself, Kippy always held her hand in front of her mouth as here, sharing a bench with Linda in Clearwater.

I couldn’t figure it out until I tried it myself. It has the effect of reflecting your voice back to your ears. You hear your own voice more clearly. Since she was compelled by her Tourette”s Syndrome to talk most of the time, in my strongest memories of Kippy, I see her holding her hand like this, talking incessantly, eyebrows raised, smiling and gazing abstractedly off into the distance.

I’ve heard that people of various Mediterranean extractions “can’t talk without their hands,”. This was true for Kippy but in a different way. Read Kippy’s story in The Girl Who Talked Too Much, now out on Amazon. Go to the memoir section to order.

One of my sons, Adriaan, is coming today with Christina, his wife. Since they live near Nashville, we don’t manage to get together very often. This weekend happens to be his 40th high school reunion, but it’s also very close to the birthday that he shares with my husband, Bill, and we’re also marking the publication of my second book.

The Girl Who Talked Too Much is a memoir of what it was like to grow up with my sister Kippy, who had an intellectual disability, and whose Tourette’s syndrome made it possible to listen in on her thoughts. Adj remembers her very well, since we saw a lot of her during his childhood.

We had lived in Melbourne Beach, only three houses from the ocean and a half-hour south of Cape Kennedy. He was only six when we moved back to this area when the space program ended, and his dad got a job as an engineer for one of the phosphate-mining companies.

When he called to tell me he was coming, he said he wanted to buy both my books, the one about Kippy and American Governess, about my year in a Bavarian castle. “Can I get them from you?” he asked, on October 17.

“Well, I just ordered author copies of both of them, but I’m not sure when they’ll get here. Let me check and I’ll get back to you”

So…..that was how I learned that my copies wouldn’t be delivered until November 10. Rats! Probably the reason is that the publisher doesn’t take as large a cut, since the author gets a discount. So why would they hustle?

He ordered a copy of each one on October 20, and had them shipped to me so I can sign them.

They arrived yesterday, October 24.

Regarding yesterday’s post with the photo of the hawk I saw on my walk; I found two species that looked like it. Both migrate through Florida in spring & fall on their way to Central of South America, and both prefer wooded areas. It looked the most like a Broad-winged Hawk to me, (particularly in the wing and tail stripes) but the Sharp-shinned Hawk is similar. If migrating, it wasn’t in any group of other hawks. It had yellow legs, apparently the sign of an adult. It was nowhere to be seen this morning.

since I made one of these. Now that it’s getting cooler, my thoughts are turning more & more to bread baking. It’s amazing what you can do with a ball of yeast dough, a bit of cinnamon-sugar, and a pair of scissors. And an oven.

I’ve been too busy finishing my book, but now it’s done, and i’m posting every day, but I think I’ll get back to baking. And doing a little housework….oh, but I don’t want to get entirely carried away.